Fillmore County Civil War veteran’s grave commemorated

CHATFIELD, Minn. (KTTC) – After more than 80 years, a Civil War veteran's grave is being honored for his service.

Charles Marion Culver served in Company B of the 5th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment as a drummer boy. He passed away in July of 1943. There are 626 Union Civil War veterans that are known to be buried in Fillmore County, Culver was the last to pass away.

On Saturday, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Camp 56 in Minnesota marked his grave in honor of his service. The organization does research to find burial places of every union soldier in the state of Minnesota and enter the information into a national data base. In the last two years, they have added 6,300 names and their bios.

"So, recognizing and thanking them, we've got two of the family members here that are of Culver that are just thrilled to death and so we were able to give them a packet of data that from the National Archives, some military things, that the average person that's doing a family tree can't find, and so it's part of their family history that they have every reason to be very proud of," Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Camp 56 in Minnesota Commander Gary Calberg said.

In addition to Culver, three more civil war soldiers... William Perry... George Andrus and William Henry Batterson, whose graves were unmarked for decades were memorialized for their service. Calberg said his organization, in 2024, memorialized 215 unmarked veterans' graves in Minnesota for their service.